The Little Sphere
by Frank Toadfish
Summary: The team experiment with an unusual device. And Ianto's shoe has an interesting evening.


I hadn't written a Torchwood fanfic in absolutely ages, so here you go. I was trying to think of any DS9 episodes I could base the storyline on, so I took one idea from Series 2's "Melora". :)

...

**Owen and Jack strode into the Hub, the circular door greeting them with its mechanical tune as it rolled to the side.**

"**Oi, you lot!" called Owen cheerily. "Come and 'ave a look at this!" Toshiko looked up from her computer, noticed Owen's unusual good mood, and smiled too.**

"**Gwen!" she called, and the Welsh brunette poked her head round the glass door of the hothouse.**

"**What is it?" she replied, putting down a large electronic watering can. She ran down the steps and joined them.**

"**Owen dug up something quite exciting on our weevil hunt," Jack said, looking at Gwen.**

"**Which I tracked down all by myself," Owen said proudly. "And given that I'm dead, and half my senses don't work any more, I think that's bloody impressive."**

"**OK, Doctor Harper," Jack warned. "Don't go getting too big-headed. It doesn't make you very attractive."**

"**Who's not very attractive?" Ianto asked, emerging from the little kitchen near his workstation. "Not talking about me, I hope."**

**Jack laughed. "You know I don't discuss our relationship in public. Not when I'm sober, anyway!"**

**Ianto smiled. "I'd better cancel our online alcohol order, then."**

"**So, what is that thing?" Gwen pointed to the device in Owen's hand.**

"**We don't actually know," Owen said, disappointed.**

"**Can't we try it out on something?" Tosh questioned. "It beats having to do admin."**

"**Why not?" Jack agreed. "We hardly ever blow stuff up any more!"**

"**How about using it on something that isn't real, so we don't turn anyone into a...chicken or something?" Ianto suggested. Jack and Tosh nodded in agreement. Gwen sniggered.**

"**What do _you_ suggest then, Miss Cooper?" Jack asked her.**

"**Ianto's shoe?" she spluttered, and burst out laughing.**

"**My footwear isn't that funny, really," Ianto said.**

"**No...it's Owen," Gwen managed to say between giggles. Jack looked at Owen, who was flapping his arms like a chicken. When he caught Jack's eye, he stopped instantly, and hung his head.**

"**Alright, then," Jack said. "Ianto, off with your shoe!" Ianto gave him a look, but obediently bent down and unlaced his shiny, black shoe. He took it off his foot, exposing a very neat woollen sock, and handed it to Jack.**

"**Now, who wants to be responsible for any consequences?" he asked his team.**

"**I'll do it," Toshiko offered, and Owen passed the round, sphere-like device to her. Toshiko held it up to the light to get a better look. The strange item looked like it was made out of foam, though it felt like smooth metal and was cold to the touch. There were two triangular buttons next to each other on the device – one red, one blue.**

"**Ready, Tosh?" Jack asked, and she nodded. Gwen, Ianto and Owen took a step back, and Jack placed the Welshman's shoe on the floor. Walking over to stand beside Tosh, he gave her the order.**

"**Do it!" Toshiko pressed the red button. Nothing happened. She looked at Jack, puzzled, and he shrugged. She pressed the blue button. Nothing.**

"**Trust us to get something that's knackered," Owen grumbled, but Gwen screamed.**

"**Look!" Ianto's shoe began to slowly rise into the air. It drifted up alongside the water tower and disappeared from view.**

"**Thanks," Ianto muttered. "They cost me thirty quid, those did."**

"**Press the red button," Jack told Tosh. "Maybe it's a recall." Tosh obeyed, but the shoe didn't return.**

"**So, we've got ourselves an anti-gravity device?" Gwen asked.**

"**Looks like it," Jack murmured, almost to himself. His eyes were unfocused, as if thinking of ways to use the mysterious object. Ianto coughed politely, and Jack snapped out of his daydream.**

"**Right, go home, everyone," he said. "We've got a long day with _real_ work tomorrow, so I want you to get some sleep, yeah?"**

*** * ***

**Toshiko sighed as she looked at the circular alien artefact. She could hear Owen cursing on the other side of the Hub, annoyed by one of the computer's programmes.**

**Gwen had left an hour ago, promising to help out with the stack of paperwork cluttering up their desks as soon as she returned. Jack and Ianto had gone half an hour later, holding hands like teenagers. Jack had told them happily that he was going to cook Ianto a meal, and Ianto had chuckled. He said that she and Owen could go once they had cleared up a bit. After all, Jack had joked, they didn't have anyone to go home to, did they?**

**Toshiko could sense the sympathy in Jack's voice when he mentioned that little detail. She didn't have anyone, because she didn't want to – the only one she wanted was now turning off all the monitors on the workstations, and he didn't want her.**

"**Hey, Tosh," that man said, running up to her. "Are you finished?" Toshiko looked down at her plan for the next day that she had been writing.**

"**Yeah, I guess so," she said, avoiding his eyes.**

"**Well, if you are, I thought we could test out that device again," Owen grinned. Toshiko looked at him, worried.**

"**Won't Jack get mad of he finds out that his stuff is lost somewhere out of his reach?"**

"**_We're_ not his stuff, though," Owen said. He picked up the sphere. "Shoot me."**

**Toshiko stared at him, shocked. "What if I hurt you?" Owen shrugged.**

"**I'm dead, anyway, I don't care. I just want to know what it feels like." Toshiko hesitated, but took the object from Owen, and pressed the blue button. Owen smiled as his feet left the ground, and he floated high above in the stale air of the underground base.**

"**I'm fine," he called down to Tosh. "Now, do it to yourself."**

**Toshiko nervously pointed the device at her waist and pressed the button. She rose into the air, and swam gracefully towards Owen.**

"**Like an angel," he grinned, and held out his hands. Toshiko took them, but forgetting the object in her hand, the device plummeted down the floor and smashed, thousands of tiny fragments scattered on the concrete.**

"**How do we get down?" she asked, panicking. Owen looked at her, then pointed to a black, leather object bobbing about to the right of them. "What do you know?" he grinned. "It's teaboy's shoe." The shoe floated past them, and turned a full circle in the air, gently descending as it returned to the ground.**

"**Ah," Toshiko said sadly, and began to cry. Owen put his arms around her, pulling her into a hug.**

"**We all get down sometimes," he told her, as she wept silently onto his shoulder. "But that's got to be worth it when you get to fly..." **


End file.
